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glenatronIn the morning chat we discussed what we had found yesterday and how we needed to change things to get them better today. For me that was a matter of presentation and figuring out how little I could do in order to get the response I was looking for. I had noticed that Oscar was very happy to let me fill in for him if possible but that when I pushed things a little further he had a lot more lightness to offer.
Steve talked a little about how it works out better to train people than horses because the horse will end up working in the place where the human is anyway. By getting the person to where they need to be, the horse will catch up.
He also talked a bit about heaviness and how you get what you settle for. Rather than have a horse that is heavy in the long term, Steve will fix it fairly briskly. The horse may seem quite uncomfortable with this at the time, but they will learn from it, so it's a brief discomfort rather than years of heavy and uncomfortable work for both horse and rider.
We fetched our horses ( I am riding Oscar for the first clinic ) and started out on the ground working on one of the exercises we used under saddle yesterday, asking the horse out on a circle then asking them to disengage by asking in time with the inside front foot and then to yield their shoulders back until they were on the circle in the opposite direction and move off again.
What I found was that my timing tended to be out and after a bit of work I realised that in order for the signal to arrive exactly as his inside front foot hit the ground I needed to begin asking for it a bit before - by taking the slack out as the other front foot was coming down I seemed to get the actual cue arriving in time with his inside foot. Like many useful observations, this one is pretty obvious when you see it written down but it was a big realisation for me and it really helped with my timing on the ground which has never been quite as good as my timing under saddle.
We did some work with asking the horse to line up on a barrel for mounting, and then got on to do some one-rein riding.
The first exercise was to try and get four directions with one rein on one side of the horse- backwards, sideways away from the rein, sideways towards the rein and forwards. With Oscar this was pretty easy to do as he does actually know how to do more or less everything you might ask for.
We moved on to swinging the tail of the rope, which is a very useful tool if you're only riding with a single rein as you can use it to back up the rein or to stop the horse diving off on the side your rein is. I got to a point where I could spin the rope on one side, swing it over the top and then keep it spinning on the other side. Once I had that working in both directions ( overhand and underhand spins ) I figured we had that working.
Next we progressed to riding on using the rein and body cues to the same way that we did yesterday to get circles working from our bodies and following with the rein. After a little bit of this Steve called us back in and talked a bit about reins.
Having covered the direct and indirect rein yesterday he was talking about the supporting rein, what we use for neck-reining. Steve observed that he saw people tending to try and use a neck rein but with too much pull in their work. If you're pulling it stops being a neck rein. He suggested we start by asking for it at a stop, just laying the rein on the horse's neck and asking them to bend away from it ( you need your horse to work correctly whatever rein you are using ) and then backing it up by swinging the rope - with Oscar I was able to swing the rope so it gently landed on his shoulder and apply a little outside leg and he soon followed it.
Steve observed that I was still pulling way too much for this- he said when they did Parelli and had those heavy bull-clips on the rope he used to say that for neck reining the bull clip should be hanging vertical when you lay the rope on the horse's neck. They can feel that just fine and that is how little pull you should be applying.
Once again I realised that I could be asking with a lot less and still getting the response I was looking for.
In the afternoon we began by continuing our work on circles from the day before, using timing on our rein and leg cues to get the circle working really lightly. I had a little more impulsion from the start than yesterday, but Oscar was certainly holding back a little.
Steve suggested that we walk our horses over and try to put them along a pole so that one front foot and one rear foot was on each side. That was easy for Oscar- we just marched up and stood there, but not so much for others. Steve spent a long time riding Sharon's mare who found it very difficult and felt it would be safer not to let a human be in direct control of her feet,
We played a bit of a sorting game, where one person tried to get their horse to a point ( between two barrels ) and the other person had to stay between them and their aim. After watching us for a bit Steve observed that whenever our horses got stuck we were pulling on the rein rather than putting more life into their bodies. He had us ride up and then showed us how much life we should be able to get into our horses by backing up our requests with the flag. This showed some much faster turns...
Elaine and Kola make a slightly quicker turn. Steve observed that there were things that, in the past, he thought were evasions or the horse spooking but now he sees it as the horse moving with a lot more life to them and if he has that under control then he's very happy with that.
When we discussed what we had at the end of the day I said I needed to do more and also do less. Steve replied that I need to put more life into my horse and then do less to direct it. If that isn't a familiar story, I don't know what is...
Steve talked a little about how it works out better to train people than horses because the horse will end up working in the place where the human is anyway. By getting the person to where they need to be, the horse will catch up.
He also talked a bit about heaviness and how you get what you settle for. Rather than have a horse that is heavy in the long term, Steve will fix it fairly briskly. The horse may seem quite uncomfortable with this at the time, but they will learn from it, so it's a brief discomfort rather than years of heavy and uncomfortable work for both horse and rider.
We fetched our horses ( I am riding Oscar for the first clinic ) and started out on the ground working on one of the exercises we used under saddle yesterday, asking the horse out on a circle then asking them to disengage by asking in time with the inside front foot and then to yield their shoulders back until they were on the circle in the opposite direction and move off again.
What I found was that my timing tended to be out and after a bit of work I realised that in order for the signal to arrive exactly as his inside front foot hit the ground I needed to begin asking for it a bit before - by taking the slack out as the other front foot was coming down I seemed to get the actual cue arriving in time with his inside foot. Like many useful observations, this one is pretty obvious when you see it written down but it was a big realisation for me and it really helped with my timing on the ground which has never been quite as good as my timing under saddle.
We did some work with asking the horse to line up on a barrel for mounting, and then got on to do some one-rein riding.
The first exercise was to try and get four directions with one rein on one side of the horse- backwards, sideways away from the rein, sideways towards the rein and forwards. With Oscar this was pretty easy to do as he does actually know how to do more or less everything you might ask for.
We moved on to swinging the tail of the rope, which is a very useful tool if you're only riding with a single rein as you can use it to back up the rein or to stop the horse diving off on the side your rein is. I got to a point where I could spin the rope on one side, swing it over the top and then keep it spinning on the other side. Once I had that working in both directions ( overhand and underhand spins ) I figured we had that working.
Next we progressed to riding on using the rein and body cues to the same way that we did yesterday to get circles working from our bodies and following with the rein. After a little bit of this Steve called us back in and talked a bit about reins.
Having covered the direct and indirect rein yesterday he was talking about the supporting rein, what we use for neck-reining. Steve observed that he saw people tending to try and use a neck rein but with too much pull in their work. If you're pulling it stops being a neck rein. He suggested we start by asking for it at a stop, just laying the rein on the horse's neck and asking them to bend away from it ( you need your horse to work correctly whatever rein you are using ) and then backing it up by swinging the rope - with Oscar I was able to swing the rope so it gently landed on his shoulder and apply a little outside leg and he soon followed it.
Steve observed that I was still pulling way too much for this- he said when they did Parelli and had those heavy bull-clips on the rope he used to say that for neck reining the bull clip should be hanging vertical when you lay the rope on the horse's neck. They can feel that just fine and that is how little pull you should be applying.
Once again I realised that I could be asking with a lot less and still getting the response I was looking for.
In the afternoon we began by continuing our work on circles from the day before, using timing on our rein and leg cues to get the circle working really lightly. I had a little more impulsion from the start than yesterday, but Oscar was certainly holding back a little.
Steve suggested that we walk our horses over and try to put them along a pole so that one front foot and one rear foot was on each side. That was easy for Oscar- we just marched up and stood there, but not so much for others. Steve spent a long time riding Sharon's mare who found it very difficult and felt it would be safer not to let a human be in direct control of her feet,
We played a bit of a sorting game, where one person tried to get their horse to a point ( between two barrels ) and the other person had to stay between them and their aim. After watching us for a bit Steve observed that whenever our horses got stuck we were pulling on the rein rather than putting more life into their bodies. He had us ride up and then showed us how much life we should be able to get into our horses by backing up our requests with the flag. This showed some much faster turns...
Elaine and Kola make a slightly quicker turn. Steve observed that there were things that, in the past, he thought were evasions or the horse spooking but now he sees it as the horse moving with a lot more life to them and if he has that under control then he's very happy with that.
When we discussed what we had at the end of the day I said I needed to do more and also do less. Steve replied that I need to put more life into my horse and then do less to direct it. If that isn't a familiar story, I don't know what is...
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no subject
Date: 23 Apr 2011 14:45 (UTC)Neck reining should never be about the rein. G says your hand should not move out of a nearly two to three inch box over the horn. Most of the work comes out of seat and leg. I generally work on the premise of weight seatbone first, follow with the leg, then rein. Ideally a simple shift of weight does the turn. However, this is all good discipline to get you to that point...and learning one rein riding is very good for those moments when you have a tack failure, or just feel like riding in halter and lead rope.
Oh, and that looks like the beginnings of a nice little rollback with Elaine and Kola....
no subject
Date: 23 Apr 2011 23:16 (UTC)Poor Steve is constantly trying to figure out which of the fifty things it's really important that we learn is the one we need to learn right now.
no subject
Date: 24 Apr 2011 00:04 (UTC)I was focusing upon what I do with the reins while riding Mocha in English tack today. For the most part, it's more minor correction (hand squeeze) or rating speed. Since today was the warmest day we've had in 2011, she was feeling pretty good and energetic, so there was a bit of rating going on. And a lot of long trot.
Working now on getting lead changes with weight shift. It's still in the figure 8, but soon we'll move on to other places....heh, heh, heh, all my evil plans, she's now getting used to doing it in the three loop serpentine as well....
no subject
Date: 24 Apr 2011 13:18 (UTC)no subject
Date: 24 Apr 2011 21:10 (UTC)For me, it's about having a fun day with my horse, not pretty pieces of colored fabric. I want to keep it fun for both of us, which means she needs to be well-schooled and fit. I've done the show stuff where I've desperately wanted to win, and it's not worth the agony.
What I do like is bombing around on a well-schooled horse, especially one I've attuned to my signals. Taking her to shows is part of that schooling, because my primary goal is to work toward making her bombproof as well as highly responsive. That also means I spend time making sure that she is comfortable, relaxed, and in a safe frame of mind. Just being mindful about the horse.
In return, she's pretty mindful of me.
(That said, I have a bad habit of creating one-man horses.....)
no subject
Date: 24 Apr 2011 21:19 (UTC)It is also very lovely to be able to easily switch back and forth between tack. I find that I can introduce a schooling concept more easily in English, then refine it in Western. Reschooling works better in English, then transitioning back into Western.
no subject
Date: 23 Apr 2011 19:12 (UTC)no subject
Date: 23 Apr 2011 23:17 (UTC)no subject
Date: 24 Apr 2011 00:05 (UTC)no subject
Date: 24 Apr 2011 13:21 (UTC)I still need Steve on hand to tell me how to ride them, mind. It's no good having a tin of caviar if you don't have a tin opener.
no subject
Date: 24 Apr 2011 21:13 (UTC)Yes, absolutely yes. This is also the advantage of boarding in a training barn. Every now and then I get a freebie from G, plus I don't have to worry about unsupervised mishandling.
no subject
Date: 23 Apr 2011 22:34 (UTC)Loving the sunny photos. It looks like an awesome space to learn and play in.
no subject
Date: 23 Apr 2011 23:20 (UTC)I'm really enjoying being here and learning. I think it's just what I needed right now.
no subject
Date: 24 Apr 2011 00:06 (UTC)